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Sermon - Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost (B) - 6th September 2009
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping
Readings: Proverbs 22; Psalm 125; James 2:1-17; Mark 7:24-37
“ARE YOU A SNOB?”
When Sarah and I are away on holidays, we attend church services incognito, and are very much aware of places where we are made to feel welcome, and other places where we feel completely ignored. In England, we attended a service at a church with a renowned program of outreach, and had a miserable time: we were given short shrift at the door, the service was not something we could relate to, and we were ignored at morning tea. In a village, we attended Communion where the eight of us sat in the choir stalls, the Rector read through an abbreviated 1662 service as if it were a shopping list, with no acknowledgement that people were even there, and he and everyone rushed off at the end. Of course in other places we were made to feel most welcome, without being overwhelmed.
Welcomers at church services have a very significant role. I find that St.Aidan’s is a very welcoming church, and St.Alban’s is also a church where newcomers are given a genuine warm welcome, I think more so than 30 years ago. But it’s always good to remind ourselves of the importance of being a welcoming congregation.
Imagine a church on a Sunday morning. Two newcomers arrive. One is obviously well-heeled; his clothes are stylish. We have seen him getting out of a very smart car: in New Testament days, it would be rings on his fingers, even if not bells on his toes. Obviously the visitor must be made welcome. He is introduced to prominent members of the congregation, and taken to one of the best seats.
Another newcomer arrives a moment later. He is wearing old worn clothes, his cleanliness and odour are open to question, and – well, you know the rest! He won’t be fussed over. Hopefully we will be polite, but where will we put him so that he doesn’t cause discomfort to the members of the congregation?
I doubt whether many or even any of us are blatant snobs. But there is at least a bit of the snob in most of us. There are “our kind of people”, and people who are not “our kind of people”. In our Epistle this morning, James warns us of the danger of snobbery, of giving preferential treatment to “our kind of people”.
Why is James so strong on this issue? He gives a number of reasons.
Firstly, snobbery is judgemental. It is saying that one person is more deserving of our attention than another. James describes it as “making distinctions” and “becoming judges with evil thoughts”.
Of course, we are not in a position to play the judge. Scripture makes it clear that all people are made in the image of God, and that we are all in need of God’s mercy. So we are not in a position to place different value on different people. Of course we will have particular friendships, and people whom we relate to at different levels. But we are not to set ourselves up as judges, to value one person above another. Snobbery is judgemental.
Secondly, snobbery is superficial . It selects particular characteristics of a person, and makes those the basis of our judgement. How can we make a sound assessment of a person based on their appearance or wealth or race or personality or apparent ability? These are mere incidentals.
One of the great shames of the church in history has been its toleration and even its justification of discrimination based on skin colour. The early church had to work through the issue of the place of people who were of Jewish and non-Jewish background. It rightly came to recognize that all Christ’s followers are members of one family, no matter where we come from, and that we are all called to demonstrate our unity in love together, without such false discrimination.
In James’ day, when Christianity was socially unacceptable, the Christian faith attracted more from the lower classes than from the establishment. Rich people were so often enemies of the church. Of course God wasn’t only on the side of the rich and powerful. God was concerned for the poor, the struggling, the humble and needy. Of course it would be nice to have more generous wealthy people in the church, but they weren’t the only ones who mattered. Snobbery wasn’t going to get the church anywhere. It was based on superficial assessments of people. Snobbery is superficial.
James gives a third reason to beware of snobbery. Snobbery is disobedient. We so often try to justify the things we know are wrong. “I’m just showing Christian love to this person who happens to look pretty well off. Surely we ought to treat these people in a loving way!” But the fawning welcomers described by James weren’t motivated by love. “This is the sort of person we want, not that other person!” was their thinking. It was manipulative rather than loving.
“Well, even if you say that, surely it’s only a very small point”, comes the reply. “Not so,” says James. “Your treatment of the poor man demonstrates your failure to truly love your neighbour as yourself. This is a neighbour you rejected. You have failed the royal law, the law that sets up the interpretation of the others. And that’s not just a minor glitch!”
God’s law shows us how to live, but it also sets the limits. Once we break down a fence in one place, it’s no use saying I should be counted innocent because I didn’t break it in another place. If I am guilty of robbery, I am not going to be held as innocent because I did not kill anyone. To break any of God’s laws is to break God’s law. Snobbery might seem to be a minor point: but it is sin and God condemns it. We can’t be choosy about which neighbour we are going to love. Snobbery is disobedience.
Faith in Christ is not just a theoretical thing. It must be lived out. The Christ we trust and follow served all people, including the outsiders of his day. He did not dismiss people on a superficial basis, though he sometimes tested them out.
Consider that Syrophoenician woman we heard about in the Gospel. Jesus seemed to deal with her in a very arrogant way, in fact the way she might expect to be treated by a Jewish holy man. He gave her the chance to demonstrate the determination and the humility he could no doubt see in her, and then he responded to her faith by healing her son. In her case, we can imagine that the healing was all the more significant because she had to work for it. And then the deaf man with the speech difficulty, who came from the Decapolis, north-east of the Sea of Galilee, was also healed: like the woman, he was probably not an Jew or Israelite. Jesus did indeed reach out beyond the limits of the people of Israel in response to people’s needs. He certainly talked straight, but he was no snob.
Over the past years I have worked in different areas with people from very different backgrounds, with different characters and resources and personalities. But people are people. Christ, whom James calls the Lord of glory, showed his glory in loving all kinds of people: rich and poor, respectable and disreputable. His family, the church, is a wonderful collection of people of all shapes and sizes and colours and backgrounds and strengths and weaknesses. Every one matters. Let us then treat each other, and treat every one who comes to visit us, or those with whom we come in contact, with something of the love of Christ.
Snobbery is out. Genuine love is in. May our faith in the Christ of love be consistently put into practice, as James insists we must do. May we live out and demonstrate the love which expresses the faith we profess.
Amen.
Paul Weaver